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Karen Impola

Studio One Host

Karen Impola is the host of Iowa Public Radio's The Folk Tree. Karen began working at KUNI in 1990. Over the years, she has hosted both folk and classical music programs, as well as the precursor to Studio One Tracks. Before moving to Iowa, she hosted folk and progressive music shows at WXPN in Philadelphia, and was a production assistant at NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

Karen spent much of her childhood and adolescence holed up in her room with a record player. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology & Anthropology from Swarthmore College, where she also did her first radio show, at 6:00 a.m. on a ten-watt station, to an audience which numbered in the single digits. Her hobbies include singing, folkdancing, and gardening.